Three legislators have each been fined 3,000 yuan ($482) for illegally keeping eight tigers, one of which died after falling from an 11-story building when it was disturbed by firecrackers during the Spring Festival holiday.

The three, Cui Jingguang, Yang Wenzheng and Zhang Fucai, are deputies to the Qingdao Municipal People's Congress in Shandong province. The tiger fell to its death in downtown Pingdu, a county-level city in Qingdao.

Qingdao forestry officials and the police launched an inquiry into the illegal raising of tigers after the incident, and they discovered that two of the animals were kept at a tourism site run by Cui.

He bought a pair of Siberian tigers in 2006 without a permit, and they subsequently had six cubs. The tiger that died was one of the cubs.

Keeping a tiger costs around 200 yuan a day, according to Li Peijie, deputy head of the Pingdu Forestation Bureau, who took part in the investigation.

Cui kept one adult and one cub at the tourist site and gave the rest to his friends Yang and Zhang, who are both millionaire businessmen. None of the three is qualified to raise tigers.

The Siberian tiger is a first-class species under State protection, and only 30 remain in the wild in Northeast China.

After the death of the young tiger on Feb 19, police transferred the rest of the animals to Qingdao Forest Wildlife World.

"Anyone intending to raise Siberian tigers must register with their local forestry department and obtain licenses to keep and breed them," Zhang Li, a professor of ecological research at Peking University, told Beijing News.

"There are strict standards for transporting tigers, cages and breeding. It is impossible for unqualified people to get those licenses."

The fines were imposed by the forestry bureau, and the three involved were not prosecuted.

Qiu Baochang, dean of Huijia Law Firm in Beijing, said they should have been punished more severely.

"People's congresses at all levels are the highest national and local bodies. They are not only legislatures, but also supervise the implementation of all laws," Qiu said.

"However, the three deputies, who are lawmakers, broke the law themselves. I think they should be taken to the court instead of only being fined."

The seven surviving tigers are now in good condition, a staff member at the wildlife park said on Wednesday.

According to Beijing News, Yang, who had the tiger that died, started to keep the animals last year. He said he treated the tigers like his children.

It is illegal to buy or sell tigers, but the animals fetch high prices on the black market. A Siberian tiger can sell for 1 million yuan ($160,500), and body parts are used in traditional Chinese medicine.

Last April, a 31-year-old man surnamed Wang was caught by police as he tried to buy a dead Siberian tiger in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province. He was later sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison and fined 50,000 yuan for illegally buying precious and endangered wildlife.

Contact the writer at xiechuanjiao@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 03/19/2015 page5)